“I really believe that the principalities south of the Danube contain the descendants of those Byzantines who were pushed northward by the incursion of Turks in the fifteenth century.”
“Why?”
(Click) “First from physiognomy:” (Click) “second from the structure of their languages.”
“Wonderful! And you have noted points of similarity?”
“I will go further than that, Holiness. I ought to say that my attention was attracted to this subject by my Lord the King, who, you know, deigned to marry a Montenegrin Princess. His Majesty used to speak much at one time on this point to me and also to the Minister of Public Instruction—”
“That is Signor Cabelli?”
“Surely. We examined the matter for His Majesty; and our investigations all seemed to point to the fact that the Turks, in coming from Asia, swept across the Byzantine Empire in a westerly and northerly direction. Then, examining the outlets and the fringes, we found Byzantine characteristics all along the northern boundary of Turkey, that is to say not in Bulgaria which is Slav, but in Albania, Herzegovina, Bosnia, and Montenegro; and, more, we found them along the Adriatic coast of Italy. Your Holiness will see that these places are of a contiguity which would render them likely refuges for the Christians who fled before, or were expelled by, the Muslim.”
“Yes.”
“There is one thing more. We found traces of an earlier migration than the Byzantine. We believe that in Eastern Italy from Taranto to Ortona, and also in Southern Albania, may be seen the lineal descendants of the Athenians of Perikles’ day.”
“But Greece, Excellency?”
“Holiness, the Greeks of today are degenerate from the dirty-knuckled Laconians crossed with the Ottoman Infidel, their conquistators.”
“That is splendid, Signore. And it marches with an opinion which We formed some dozen years ago, at least in regard to your Italian Greeks. We have seen those with Our Own eyes. In Apulia, for instance, the Elgin Marbles have their living counterfeits: the charcoal-burners and the fishermen look as though they had stepped out of the Frieze of the Parthenon. Once We heard a fisherman summon his boy by the word ‘Páddy’—to give it an English form. An Italian would have cried ‘Putto.’ But ‘Páddy,’—what vocative is that but Παιδε, pronounced as Alkibiades would have pronounced it? Oh, We see your point. And is your Lord the King still interested in the subject?”
“I believe that His Majesty is intensely interested. I hope I may venture to repeat the corroboration which Your Holiness has given me. I am sure that His Majesty—”
“By all means. Of course you merely will repeat the conversation. You will not intrude Us before the King’s Majesty in Our apostolic character: but merely—”
“Your Holiness’s wish shall be respected.”
“But to resume:—We agree to identify those states south of the Danube with the Byzantines in general; and Montenegro and South Albania with the Greeks in particular. What about North Albania?”
(Click) “That is Turkish.”
“All Albania is Turkish.”
“But South Albania is Christian. And all Albania, Christian and Muslim, reverences Madonna—Panagia, Παναγια, ‘Lady of All,’ they call her.”
“How very extraordinary! Well now let us take their present situation. Suppose, Signore Panciera, that we reverse our positions. Instead of hearing your opinion, We will state Ours; and you shall comment on it. Is that fair? Is that agreeable?”
“Most fair: most agreeable. I always learn from Englishmen and I shall learn from Your Holiness.”
“Good. We believe that Montenegro is happy and contented under the paternal rule of Prince Nicholas.”
(Click-click-click) “That is so, Holiness.”
“We hear that Albania is shaping well under Prince Ghin Kastriotis.”
(Click: a walk to the window and back; and more clicks) “Since the murder of Abdul Hamid, and the erection of Albania into a principality, progress has been astounding. The beautiful country, (click) the splendid people, are a prize to any ruler. Sultan Ismail is the only cloud in the sky. He does not approve of the loss of that slice of his empire. But Albania will take care of herself.”
“Serbia, and her yearning for the restoration of the Serbian Empire?”
“Impossible. A nation which murders two kings in four years cannot be an Empire.”
“Quite impossible. Bulgaria, a country of heretics of the most notorious and dreadful kind, atrocious brigands to a man, ruled (or rather not ruled) by a foreigner who is a contemptible cur.”
“Your Holiness would propose—”
“The deposition of Prince Ferdinand—an easy task now that Russia has her hands full—and the annexation of Bulgaria and Serbia by Montenegro under the protection of Italy.”
(Click-click-click) “There, Holiness, we come to the ground of high politics.” (Click-click-click-click) “One must walk very warily.”
“Yes,” Hadrian mewed: “until Italy and Germany have made up their minds.”
The ambassador bowed.
“Please leave the bagatelle-balls, Excellency; and accept Our thanks for your very agreeable conversation,” said the Pope.
In giving an account of this interview to the king, the ambassador concluded “and, Sire, His Holiness spoke like an Englishman.”
“Oh did He,” said Victor Emanuel. “In what way?”
“Majesty, he was profound and limpid, He was large and particular, He was bold and careful.”
“Basta! Go again as often as you please; and let me hear more of this Englishman.”
“With the favour of Your Majesty.”
XII
The Liblab deputation had returned to England: but Jerry Sant and Mrs. Crowe hung on at a decent little hotel in Two Shambles Street, which was convenient to the English quarter. Their idea was to wait for an opportunity to push their scheme of blackmail. Most of each day, Mrs. Crowe was in the Square of St. Peter’s, looking up at the Vatican, hoping for the apparition of Hadrian at His window. In the evenings, she saw Him walking to and fro on the steps of the basilica. There always was something of a crowd there. The poorest of the poor, by the common consent of the most courteous of nations, were placed in front; and she used to see the Pope giving words and gold to persons whom she deemed disreputable. She would have sacrificed her
